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Author Topic: RSS reader with firefox engine. local copy of content, and newspaper CSS?  (Read 7225 times)

urlwolf

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Hi,

I need an RSS reader. I'm currently using greatNews, but it has some shortcommings (IE engine). I'd line to have an RSS reader with firefox engine.

Another feature I need is a local copy of content (I'm often offline), and newspaper CSS.

Sage has the newspaper CSS, but no local content. Also, I don't like that items don't keep the little icons.
RSS wizz reader
see also http://www.wizzrss.com/WizzRss.php,
seems to have more features, but it has a little window (unreadable!) and not the newspaper approach. It also opens the original html when one click the links, so a lot of time is wasted loading the page.

Is there any other I'm missing? What do you use lately to read feeds?

Perry Mowbray

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Is there any other I'm missing? What do you use lately to read feeds?

Funny, I just stumbled across i-Fetch, have not tried it...

- Perry

Nighted

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I was using FeedDemon until I found RSSOwl. It didn't take long to remove FeedDemon and go exclusively with RSSOwl. It does require Java however.
I`m a firm believer in the philosophy of a ruling class, especially since I rule.

CWuestefeld

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I've been using wTicker (http://www.wticker.org/ ) for quite a while. It meets most of your requirements, I think. The rendering engine isn't IE, but I don't think it's Firebird either.

Unfortunately, the developer seems to have abandoned it. You can probably find downloads if you look, but the web site is dead, and I can't get email replies from him.

So I'm in the market now myself. Like you, I want local content. Another must-have for me is Bayesian ranking of articles. I have a lot of subscriptions, but I don't care to spend the time reading all of their output. I'd rather spend the time I've got on the few that appear to meet my tastes the best. The only other candidate I can find with this feature is Attensa (http://www.attensa.com )

urlwolf

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Thanks, attensa looks good. I like Del.icio.us integration, but hate outlook dependency. Their folder-based view sucks (no icons, opens as outlook mail with no images by default). The 'river of news' view... well, looks like it'd take a while to get used to. and I', not sure the algorithm will be that effective. Let me make the decisions about what to read! (same problem I had with MLO, the smart algorithm never did it for me).

What's your experience with attensa?

CWuestefeld

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What's your experience with attensa?

Honestly, I haven't tried it yet. I'm holding out hope for wTicker, and keeping Attensa (or whatever anyone else can suggest) as a backup.

ChrisSaad

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I've been using wTicker (http://www.wticker.org/ ) for quite a while. It meets most of your requirements, I think. The rendering engine isn't IE, but I don't think it's Firebird either.

Unfortunately, the developer seems to have abandoned it. You can probably find downloads if you look, but the web site is dead, and I can't get email replies from him.

So I'm in the market now myself. Like you, I want local content. Another must-have for me is Bayesian ranking of articles. I have a lot of subscriptions, but I don't care to spend the time reading all of their output. I'd rather spend the time I've got on the few that appear to meet my tastes the best. The only other candidate I can find with this feature is Attensa (http://www.attensa.com )

CWuestefeld if I may suggest a product me and my team are working on called Touchstone. Think of it as wTicker meets Attensa. Only the top posts (based on personal relevancy to you) appear in the ticker or popup alerts.

Hope you don't mind the pointer!

ChrisSaad

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Oops - the URL might help :)

http://www.touchstonelive.com

urlwolf

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ChrisSaad, I wouldn't mind to give try if that's possible. Attensa crashes outlook for me. Thanks

CWuestefeld

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Only the top posts (based on personal relevancy to you) appear in the ticker or popup alerts.

Thanks for the pointer, it looks interesting. A couple of questions:
  • Aside from the eye candy alerts, does it have a more traditional newsreader interface (3-panel thing, or somesuch?
  • The relevancy rankings that are mentioned are what I'm looking for. But the site isn't clear on how this works. Keyword watches are mentioned, but that alone won't do it for me. I'm hoping for a Bayesian-type scheme. Does it offer anything like this?

Sounds interesting, though.

BTW, I'm not fanatical about advertising. I'm not opposed in principle to targeted advertising. However, it seems to me that to enable the targeting, you've either got to download the targeting specifications of each ad so that the client can decide if the user will want it (thereby using bandwidth) or send a digest of the user's interests (which is a potential privacy issue).

ChrisSaad

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Hi - Thanks for the great questions!

We don't have a 3 pane interface at the moment, however we do have the ability to output your TOP items to RSS and you can then subscribe to them in a feed reader - that way you can start your morning digest there.

We also have an output adapter system where any 3rd party could write a traditional 3 pane interface if they chose.

If you don't like the ads, you can upgrade to a Pro version for a small fee (prices have not been announced yet, bt it will be shareware scale).

Regarding ads: Touchstone will not send your attention data to our servers. All advertising decisions are made on your PC. The bandwidth cost will be negligible or non-existent.

urlwolf

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Do we need an invite?

ChrisSaad

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yes URLWolf unfortunately it is still Invite Online in private testing - but we are just about to announce the first Beta.

So if you sign up to the mailing list on the page you will get one pretty soon.

No spam etc - I promise. Hate spam